Rev. John Alford had no doubts when he pointed his finger Wednesday at the man he said broke into his Lake Gaston home last month, kidnapped his wife and later set the house on fire.
During a probable cause hearing, Alford said he was certain that 34-year-old Lester Kearney was the intruder he saw with a knife in his bedroom when he awoke on March 9.
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"I knew something was dreadfully wrong," he said in court.
Alford said Kearney beat him up, chipping a tooth, and tied him to the bed.
"Don’t hurt him anymore, he is an old man," Alford recalled his 76-year-old wife, Nancy, telling the intruder.
Kearney threatened to kill John Alford if he didn't get the money he wanted, Alford testified, and Kearney then left the house with Nancy Alford.
Authorities said Nancy Alford was forced to drive to a State Employees' Credit Union branch in Roanoke Rapids and cash a check.
John Alford said prayed while they were gone, and he was able to untie himself. But he stayed in bed to make it appear as if he was still restrained.
He said he later heard a loud noise and his wife screaming, "Oh, God, no!" He jumped from the bed to help but found a wall of flames in another room.
Alford said he tried to get to his wife, who was begging for help, by the front and back doors but couldn't reach her. He said he then crawled through the burning home but couldn't find her amid the smoke.
Firefighters later found Nancy Alford's body in the rubble of the burned-out house.
John Alford spent more than two weeks at the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill recovering from injuries to his face, neck and arms.
He told investigators that he never saw a second man, but Kevin Munn, 30, also is charged with murder in the case.
John Alford testified that Munn worked with a contractor doing work on Nancy Alford’s psychology office in Roanoke Rapids and that Munn had visited his home to talk with his wife.
Investigators say that, after the attack, Munn took the Alfords’ stolen Mercedes to Haywood County and burned it.
Evidence from the car led investigators to Munn, and authorities said he implicated Kearney in the crime.
In court, Kearney’s attorney, Larry Norman, grilled investigators, providing a preview of possible defenses in the case.
Norman questioned how quickly authorities zeroed in on Kearney and mentioned possible alibis for the morning of the attack – a trip to a doctor’s office and a grocery store – and that others might corroborate Kearney's whereabouts that day.
Norman even requested that Kearney be given a lie detector test.
Investigators said it wasn't necessary to give Kearney a polygraph test because John Alford told them he was certain Kearney was the intruder.
After Alford’s testimony, a judge ruled the case against Kearney could go forward.
"I thought he was very brave, and he did an amazing job in relaying, obviously, a very painful memory," Warren County District Attorney Mike Waters said after the hearing.
Kearney, who has a criminal record dating to 2002, including convictions for kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and larceny, remains in the Vance County jail without bond. Munn is being held without bond in the Warren County jail.